BibleProject | One Story: Foundations of the Bibleনমুনা

Banished east of Eden, humanity continues a terrible, downward spiral. In today’s video, pay attention to how humanity repeatedly rejects God’s good plan and the harm this brings.

As the spiral descends in today’s reading, you may notice certain words, phrases, images, actions, and settings reappear in multiple stories. The biblical authors use these literary repetitions as “hyperlinks” to other parts of the Bible.

Take, for example, the story of Cain. Like his parents under Eden’s fruit trees, Cain faces a life-or-death kind of choice. God tells Cain that sin is like a “croucher” or “predator” that wants to devour him, but it can be “mastered” or “subdued.” But instead of following God’s instruction, Cain does what looks good in his own eyes—a choice that leads to death. Cain’s decision and its consequences echo his parents’ tragic story: struggle, curse, and exile from God’s presence.

The cycle of death and oppression only gets worse from there. By Genesis 6, humanity is on the brink of self-destruction. God’s images were supposed to multiply and fill the earth with goodness, not with violence and evil!

With a broken heart, God sends a powerful flood. The dark waters of chaos wash back over the world to cleanse it of evil. But God refuses to abandon humanity. He saves Noah and his family, bringing them through the waters of death for a fresh start on the other side.

Reflection Questions

• Where do you see God acting mercifully during the downward spiral of Genesis 3-11?
• What hyperlinks do you see between Genesis 1-3 and Genesis 4-7? How do these repetitions and patterns help you understand both sets of stories?